In more bad news for their competitors, Fox's (NWS-A) "House" retained 84 percent of the lead-in from "American Idol" and scored the best viewers for a scripted show in over a year. The duo also is believed to have broken a record for the networks' highest performing regularly scheduled lineup.
Nielsens prelim's show that "House" received an 11.2 rating/27 share for the key 18-49 demo, accumulating 27.8 million viewers. Even the ABC (DIS) season premiere of "Grey's Anatomy" wasn't able to topple "House." They finished the night with 10.2/25.
"Idol" itself scored huge again with a 13.3/33 in the 18-49, with 33.3 million viewers. With five shows under its belt for the year, the viewership is up by 3 percent over last year in the 18-49 and up by 3.9 million in total viewers.
NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" finished the night at 2.9/8 in 18-49. "Boston Legal" topped the night at 2.7/7 in 18-49 for ABC. CBS (CBS)with a new "48 Hours" was the same as "Boston Legal," coming in with a 2.7/7 finish as well.
With Fox taking Monday night with their combination of "Prison Break" and "24," and now "House" holding on to such a huge portion of its lead-in viewers, they could potentially do far better than even expected in the February sweeps. Super Bowl? What Super Bowl?
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